Ruff Day: Charlie's Rules #2

Charlie and his friends Amy and Jenna are preparing for a class presentation on space, but Jenna is a bit distracted—she is worried about her pet bulldog, Diesel, because he has been attacking her mum, Mrs Yee. 

The three friends go to work on their presentation at Jenna’s house so that Charlie and Amy, who help out in Charlie’s mum’s veterinary clinic, can meet Dees and see what is going on. While working on the presentation, Charlie is concerned that Amy is not following his plan—she wants to change her topic, which would through him right off and break his rules. Dees, however, is very well behaved for their entire visit. 

Charlie and Amy discuss Dees with Charlie’s mum, Selena, who says that Dees is likely changing his behaviour because something or someone is triggering him, rather than any medical reason, and that they should look out for anything that might upset Dees.

Later, when the three friends are rehearsing their presentation at Jenna’s house, Charlie is disappointed when nobody is very interested in his topic, whereas Amy’s gets lots of questions and rounds of laughter. Not long after, Mrs Yee walks in, not chewing gum for once, and bends down to pet Dees. Dees seems to smell her face, before barking loudly and trying to bight her leg!

Before too long, the three friends manage to work out what is upsetting Dees: Mrs Yee has a cancerous tumour, and Dees can smell it on her breath with his canine sense of smell. Very pleased to have solved the mystery and saved both Dees and Mrs Yee, the three friends decide to change the topic of their presentation to “How a Bulldog Saved the Life of Jenna’s Mum”. 

The three give a rousing presentation, and Charlie also learns that sometimes it’s better to improvise and tell a story than strictly follow the rules, and his section of the presentation has the entire class enthralled.

This second book in the Charlie’s Rules series, Ruff Day is an informative and engaging story that can be read as a standalone.

Simple black-and-white illustrations break up the text and add character. Teaching readers about space, astronauts, palindromes, and medical service dogs (there actually are dogs who are trained to detect cancer), this early reader is both delightful and educational.   

veterinary, pets, dogs, cancer, service dogs, presentations, palindromes, space, astronauts

Jenna’s pet dog Diesel nips at Mrs Yee’s leg to communicate that something is wrong (p. 58-60).